New Me Before the New Year
By Angelina Li
December is the month of changes—winter beginning (with 80 degrees weather, but so be it), grades coming to a close (scarier in the short-term than climate change), students returning home (although this is probably less exciting if your home is nearby) and the year coming to a close.
I remember walking with my best friend down the block after school, and she told me how waiting until New Year’s to start a goal is stupid. Why start later when you can start now? I agreed, of course, while remembering my need to start work at times when the minute is a multiple of five. Why start writing this blog at 4:08 p.m. when I can begin at 4:10 p.m.? It’s this feeling of a fresh start that makes starting at a rounded time like 12:00 p.m. seem much more enticing than a 12:28 p.m. New Year’s Day is the quintessential start time because not only do we ourselves view it as this perfect, “rounded” time, but also it is the new beginning for everyone else too. Other people are out making improvements, so we believe we should too.
By hyping ourselves to start the year off with a bang with this “new year, new me” attitude, we often create unnecessary pressure for ourselves to be our new perfect selves and inevitably crash later on as the excitement wanes.
Hence, I wanted to document not only the goals I want to start now as opposed to when the ball drops but also the habits I already have and want to maintain.
Habits to Maintain
Project panning, AKA the Internet’s latest obsession
If you haven’t heard of the term “project pan,” it is a project to finish products before buying new ones. The second word “pan” comes from the fact that this started in the beauty community, in which people wanted to actually reach the pan of products or the bottom of the container. Honestly, I think many people already intuitively do this (myself included), but it is fun to track my progress and take pictures of the products I have finished. I do hope to finish all the lip products I have gotten over the years as samples so that I can buy one that I really want.
2. Active recall when studying for exams
As someone whose finals are mostly essay-based, I practice active recall by writing out my theses as well as evidence I think I can use for the exam. When I want to be lazy and just read my materials, I just remember how my memory is absolutely horrendous and that in order to do well, I need to regurgitate what I learned onto paper so that I can remember it for the exam.
3. Living an active lifestyle
Speaking of active, I am someone who likes to frolic around for fun and will walk an hour just to go to a nearby mall. However, when that is not a viable option, I also enjoy using the treadmills at the Village Fitness Center, walking around campus with friends, and even window shopping at Target and Trader Joe's. While I don’t live a super strenuous life with no athletic commitments, walking and running are ways I make sure not to dip into a sedentary lifestyle.
4. Getting eight hours of sleep
This one might be a stretch because I like to take naps throughout the day and thus don’t sleep as much at night. However, I do sleep much more here than I did back home, and I think that has helped my body function better.
5. Planning meals in advance
If you ever sit behind me in class, you may notice the USC dining hall menu tab always lurking somewhere on my screen. I like to figure out not only which dining hall I want to go to, but also what foods I want to try specifically. One, because I will end up getting distracted with all the choices, and two, because I want to plan which proteins I can add to my daily salad. Also, it’s just fun to be excited about what I get to eat, even if the food mostly cycles each month.
Goals to Implement
Budgeting in a sustainable way
I really thought I could get by this semester by only buying the necessities—in fact, I thought I had brought enough necessities to get me by. I personally am not that much of a spender compared to the next person, but at the same time, I’m not someone who won’t spend when there is something I really want. I want to implement a rule where each week, one hour of my wages becomes my spending money, in which I can either use it on whatever I want. However, I must also buy my necessities like toothpaste using this fund, which will start off with $20 as a base. My goal is to save as much of this fund as I can so that I can wait and have a nice haul of things I know I will use for a long time from my favorite Chinese shopping website.
2. Join more pre-law related activities
As someone who is looking to attend law school in the future, I want to get more involved in pre-law opportunities on campus. This semester, I was not able to do so as I had other conflicting commitments, but I am hoping that next semester, my schedule will allow for more activities. During winter break, I am planning on learning more about the LSAT in preparation for my future years. I don’t really know how that’s going to go, but I think it would be fun to take a mock exam.
3. Visit Exposition Park and its museums more often
I really enjoyed going to the Natural History Museum and seeing the life-sized animals (although it was unpleasant to learn they had been taxidermied) in October. However, despite the entrance fees being waived using my student ID, I don’t know why I haven’t visited more nearby museums. Especially as Exposition Park is within walking distance, I hope that by the end of the school year, I will have visited each one.
4. For my fellow iron-deficient victims, actually eating my iron pills.
When this semester began, I started each day with a probiotic pill and ended with an iron pill. Now, I have no more of the probiotic kind but an alarming amount of the iron kind remaining. I am starting to suspect this is why I lose so many strands of hair when doing my hair wash. I plan to keep my pill bottle next to my bed so that when I am about to sleep I remember and eat it. They say out of sight, out of mind, so hopefully, if it’s in sight, it’s in my mind.
Conclusion
I remember when I stopped even thinking about New Year’s Resolutions for a while because I knew I wouldn’t keep up with any of my goals. Hence, as I work to achieve the habits and goals I have listed in the blog, and perhaps you as a reader do the same, remember that when you don’t achieve your goals or break your habits, to have a growth mindset and allow yourself time to improve. Have small goals (as well as accompanying rewards) to set yourself up for success, and perhaps even ask your friends to help keep you accountable.
